WASHINGTON — A lawmaker who helped negotiate a bipartisan bill to overhaul immigration predicted on Sunday that comprehensive legislation would overwhelmingly pass the Senate by July 4, while House Republicans cautioned that they would write their own version, one piece at a time.
Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat of New York, said he expects as many as 70 of the 100 senators to vote for the measure heading to the full Senate next Monday.
Even if it passes there, the plan faces tough prospects in the GOP-led House, where lawmakers are at work on their own piecemeal approach that could stall a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in this country illegally.
‘‘We are moving forward because we believe in a bipartisan way this is so vital for America, and we’ll have a good bill,’’ Schumer said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.’’ He pledged to allow colleagues to amend the legislation.
Not so fast, House lawmakers cautioned. ‘‘That Senate bill is not going to move in the House,’’ said US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is a Florida Republican.
For months, four Democratic senators met with four Republican colleagues behind closed doors and developed a proposal that would enact new border controls and enforcement mechanisms in the workplace, allow tens of thousands of workers into the country legally for high- and low-skilled jobs, and create a 13-year path to citizenship for those living here illegally.
It passed the Senate Judiciary panel last month by a vote of 13 to 5; three Republicans joined Democrats.
The Democrat-led Senate is putting pressure on the House, which has a Republican majority.